Jeep Tubs From Scratch

[Jimmyb]

Col Watson, Brisbane, Australia:

Chris Waters wrote from Australia in mid-2007: "I thought I would send some photos of a friend's Dominion Motors-built CJ-3B. It is owned by Col Watson and was built from a group of accumulated parts. He built the body in his shed using only a cowl and a firewall (he's a very talented man.)"

"The vehicle is a bit different, combining the best features of the 3B and the MB. It was built with practicality in mind, so it has an MB long-range tank and tool boxes, as well as axe and shovel pressings. It was used as a daily driver until not too long ago, and was used as the family holiday car including a trip to the very top of Australia (Cape York), a 10,000 kilometre round trip."

"He had a few original 3B parts; he had the cowl panel off one car, the firewall of another car and the windscreen of another. The front part of the grille is original, the rest he hand fabricated.



"The hood is a funny story in itself. Col's brother had a 3B and had seen a 3B hood from the side of the road in a town called Barcaldine, some 1000km from Brisbane where we all live. After some years Col was looking for a hood for his 3B and asked his brother if he had done anything about the one he saw. He said no, and the next time Col was in that area he went hunting for this hood and found it in a property -- it was being used as the side of a chook (chicken) shed.

"He saw the owner and explained he was building one of those Jeep things and would he sell him the hood. The man of the house was happy to sell it to him, knowing it was going to a good home, but when the lady of the house found out, she was more than just a little upset. Her reasoning was that it fitted so neatly around the nesting boxes. So in order to get the hood from her, Col had to travel back into town, buy some sheet metal and fabricate a new wall for the chook shed before he was allowed to purchase the hood."



"This picture is of the cowl and the firewall. The cowl, the firewall and the legs are off 3 different cars, and the legs are off 2 different cars -- the yellow bits on the legs are where the rust had set in and have been hand fabricated.

"Col's 3B chassis number is from a 1953 Dominion Motors-built vehicle and still has the plates etc. (I must ask him which one of the 3 it is!)"

"The rest of the body except the tailgate was hand fabricated from new sheet metal. As I said he is a very talented man. He has just finished a CJ-6 body where the only original parts are the cowl, the hood, and the firewall. No patterns, just hard work. He has also built 6 or 7 MB bodies from firewalls, and is about to start one for himself and one for his father."

"As you can see Col used an old MB chassis as a jig and fabricated the tub out of zinc-plated material. See also a left side photo (120K JPEG).

"The build of the tub took about 150 hours due to the amount of hand fabrication. The only machines used were a guillotine and a folder. He had a die to press the axe and shovel pressings but everything else was done by hand. His theory was, I'm not building this to last 10 years I'm building it to last 50 years. Hence the use of the zinc steel. The front floor section was totally hand fabricated in 2 halves and joined prior to assembly."



"This is when the chassis was built and the body was yet to be finished. This 3B is now 14 years old and has travelled over 50,000 miles since the rebuild and does not have any rust appearing whatsoever.

[Bozza]

Wow. Great story. Seems the guy can build anything!